I was highly amused when the boys chose the merit badges they will be working on at Boy Scout camp next month. Fifteen- (almost sixteen!) year-old*:Citizenship in the NationEnvironmental ScienceEmergency PreparednessAstronomy (oops!) Weather Thirteen-year-old:ArtArcheryIndian Lore (FUN!)Basketry *The older boy is working on his Eagle rank, so he is looking at what he NEEDS to do and the younger one isn’t there yet, but the older one is still interested in those topics and has never taken advantage of the “artsy” badges…
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It’s Confirmed…He’s Been Confirmed!
Yesterday was a proud day for our family, and a very happy one for the fifteen-year-old specifically. His religious school class was confirmed, basically meaning that these upcoming high school Juniors are “confirming their commitment to Judaism”. It also means that they are finished with their “formal” religious training (=no more Sunday School), however in the Jewish religion, we are supposed to always seek ways to educate ourselves further in other ways. These kids, however, were not thinking about getting more education last night; they were focusing on the “No More Religious School!” part, which is fine for now. Confirmation is different from a Bar or Bat Mitzvah; to read…
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They Don’t Yet Realize That They Already Measure Up
1997“Let’s go! Back to back!” is something we hear all the time in our house. It started sometime within the last two years (post-Bar Mitzvah), when the older boy started sprouting up. 2005 First he bypassed the height of Aunt Julie, and for a nephew, that was a big thrill. (For an aunt, not so much, she joked.) An inch or two later, he was starting to see Jim and me eye-to-eye, and it was all over from that point. “I’m taller than you are.” “No, you’re not. You have shoes on and I’m barefoot.” “Fine. I’ll take off my shoes! Let’s go! Back to back!” And that’s how the…
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The Aftermath of a Great Day: It’s a Good Thing!
I hope everybody out there had a lovely Mother’s Day! I had a fine day; thanks for asking. As is customary, I got four cards: one from Jim, one from each of the kids (they picked out those musical Hallmark cards: SO CUTE!), and one from Roxie. I may have to scan the card that Roxie “picked out” and post it tomorrow; Jim is hilarious. Although I had to teach my religious school class in the morning—meaning no leisurely breakfast in bed—the rest of the day was fabulously low-key, which is just what I needed. We went to see “Baby Mama”, which is a cute movie but not riproaringly hilarious…
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The Best Thing Ever When You Want To Count Your Blessings
There probably aren’t a lot of folks out there at this point who haven’t heard of Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University professor whose “Last Lecture” has been viewed online a couple million times. If you don’t know about him, click here for more information. If you want to watch his lecture, here it is: get comfy! (this is the whole lecture from start to finish!) Last Wednesday night, there was a Primetime special about Randy on ABC. Jim and I watched it together and boy, was it a tearjerker. At the same time, we couldn’t get over this man’s attitude. We are unsure if, faced with the same circumstance,…
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Go Tina, Go!
I just wanted to give a shout-out and ask you all to keep your fingers crossed… Shirley’s daughter, Tina T. takes my group cycling classes when she can. The first time I saw her, I thought, “WOW, she is ‘cut’!” This girl is super-fit and clearly an athlete. As I got to know her, I found out that she plays basketball and also coaches for a local high school girl’s team. She is very focused, very “together”, and I really, really enjoy when she makes it to my class. A little more than a week ago, we found out at the healthclub that Tina got an invitation to try out…
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Thank You Easter Bunny! Bawk Bawk!
Not a lot for a Jewish Girl to do today…except make a nice dinner with the husband and kids and invite our other favorite Jewish Girl over to help us enjoy it! I wanted to do a quick post wishing a “Happy Easter!” to all my peeps! Yes, I really meant YOU. And now, enjoy my favorite Easter commercial, ever. Have a good one! More bloggie goodness on Monday!
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From the Mouths of Thirteen-Year-Olds…
In the car today, on the way to deliver the 13-year-old to his guitar lesson: Him: “You know Mom, you should be on “Ellen”. Me: “Really? Why?” Him: “Because you do all of this writing for Nailpro, and you wrote a book and all.” Me: “Hmmm. I don’t think that’s quite enough to get to be on Ellen’s show.” Him: “Well, just write more! Maybe something about the Bears?”
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When You Find Out Your Hard Work Was Totally Worth It…
As some of you might remember, the fifteen-year-old just “found” Lacrosse early last year and really, really wants to play for his school. Click here for a little background. We have put him into a few workshops and such, including, most recently, Core Conditioning sessions on Mondays after school for 8 weeks and Friday evening sessions run by a couple of the coaches from his high school. We were happy to discover that he could play on the Freshman/Sophomore team (he’s in 10th grade) no matter what (without the tryouts), but was welcome to try out for Junior Varsity and Varsity. Since the whole idea was that he really just…
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Post-Party Depression Sure Made This Week Fly By…
Yes, you read that right: Post-PARTY depression. I keep thinking about finishing up on my Bar Mitzvah summary posts, but this week has been so busy for me between getting my house back to normal, having the 13-year-old home sick with strep throat Monday and Tuesday (don’t get me started) and subbing a few extra group cycling classes…I’m exhausted just typing about it! I’m going to do this post as quickly as possible (forgive any typos!), because I want to work on a magazine article this afternoon: this is my first free couple of hours in a week or two! I still don’t have access to the photos taken by…